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By Kate KellandReuters • Sunday September 8, 2013 10:28 AM

LONDON — Smokers who switch to electronic cigarettes to try to kick their habit are at least as likely to succeed in quitting or cutting down as users of nicotine patches, according to research published today.

In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers compared electronic cigarettes with the more standard nicotine-replacement-therapy patches.

They found levels of success were comparable, with e-cigarettes — whose effects are a subject of intense debate among health experts — more likely to help smokers who fail to quit cut the amount of tobacco they use.

Some experts fear that e-cigarettes might be a “gateway” to nicotine addiction and tobacco smoking, while others view them as the most-useful method yet of cutting back and helping would-be quitters.

While the argument rumbles on, smoking continues to kill half of all those who indulge in it. Tobacco is responsible for 6 million deaths a year, and the World Health Organization estimates that number could rise beyond 8 million by 2030.

The study, published in medical journal The Lancet and presented at a conference in Spain, was the first to assess whether e-cigarettes or patches are more effective.

“While our results don’t show any clear-cut differences … in terms of quit success after six months, it certainly seems that e-cigarettes were more effective in helping smokers who didn’t quit to cut down,” said Chris Bullen of New Zealand’s University of Auckland, who led the study.

“It’s also interesting that the people who took part in our study seemed to be much more enthusiastic about e-cigarettes than patches, as evidenced by the far greater proportion of people … who said they’d recommend them to family or friends.”

The study of 657 smokers found that about 57 percent of people using e-cigarettes smoked half as many cigarettes or fewer daily after six months, compared with just over 40 percent of the patches group.

Ann McNeill, a professor studying tobacco addiction at King’s College London, said the findings should persuade health experts to embrace e-cigarettes as a useful weapon in the battle against smoking.

“Electronic cigarettes are the most exciting new development in tobacco control over the last few decades as we have witnessed a rapid uptake of these much less harmful products by smokers,” she said in an email.